Plymouth Neon vs Mercury Grand Marquis

Both cars' complete complaint records, side by side.

Read the totals carefully. NHTSA publishes no sales figures, so the car that sold more collects more complaints regardless of quality. The rows worth weighing are the proportions — the share of complaints that involved harm, and which part dominates.

Measure	Plymouth Neon	Mercury Grand Marquis
Complaints on file	2,016	4,953
Model years covered	1994–2001	1977–2011
Worst model year	1995	2003
Best model year	1999	2011
Crashes reported	230	395
Fires reported	66	277
Injuries reported	161	239
Deaths reported	11	15
Most complained-about part	Engine & Cooling	Lights
Share of complaints involving harm	23.2%	18.7%

Plymouth Neon by year

3 711 476 234 237 82 199 74

94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01

Complaints filed with NHTSA, by model year. Bar colour is the FaultScore grade: A B C D F ungraded

What breaks

Engine & Cooling 625 31.0%

Brakes 233 11.6%

Electrical System 170 8.4%

Airbags 169 8.4%

Steering 119 5.9%

Transmission & Drivetrain 114 5.7%

Other & Unspecified 81 4.0%

Body & Structure 75 3.7%

Mercury Grand Marquis by year

1 1 2 8 14 24 29 22 57 98 69 63 106 330 178 197 222 282 370 168 202 216 207 101 449 422 634 188 111 101 35 35 11

77 78 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11

Complaints filed with NHTSA, by model year. Bar colour is the FaultScore grade: A B C D F ungraded

What breaks

Lights 950 19.2%

Electrical System 556 11.2%

Engine & Cooling 535 10.8%

Acceleration & Cruise Control 459 9.3%

Brakes 369 7.5%

Steering 365 7.4%

Airbags 248 5.0%

Transmission & Drivetrain 238 4.8%